Unpacking RAR files - how it works

In order to unpack RAR files on your PC, it is necessary to install a suitable program first. Which programs you can choose from for this depends on which operating system you use on your computer. You can get an overview of the best free tools and their functions here.

This is what RAR files are

If you have files with the extension "RAR" on your computer, they are special archive files. Similar to ZIP files, files in RAR format contain several other files that have been reduced in size using special tools. As a rule, the size of the RAR files is only 10 percent of the size that the files had in their original format.

Use these tools to unpack RAR files on your computer

If you have RAR files on your PC, they can be easily unpacked using the same program that was used to compress the files previously. If you do not know which program was used to create the RAR file, you can use one of the following tools:

1. A suitable program for unpacking RAR files is WinRAR. This is available as a download for computers running Windows, Linux and macOS as operating systems and can be used free of charge. In addition to unpacking and creating RAR files, it is also possible with WinRAR to repair damaged archive files.
2. Also free to use is the tool 7-Zip. This integrates after installation automatically in the context menu of Windows and supports, in addition to the files in RAR format, other file formats such as ISO, TAR or ZIP.
3. Only available for Windows computers is the program RarZilla Free Unrar. You can also download this free of charge and use it to unpack RAR files. However, creating your own RAR files is not possible with RarZilla.